Former Cabinet Secretary Questions Blind Faith In Climate Alarmism

Date: 16/05/11

London, 16 May – Lord Turnbull, the former Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Home Civil Service (2002 – 2005), has called on MPs and ministers to consider more carefully the rising costs and economic risks of Britain’s unilateral climate policies.

In a dispassionate but devastating critique of current policies, Andrew Turnbull also criticises the blind faith in the propositions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) given that they do not bear the weight of certainty with which they are often expressed.

In his briefing paper for the Global Warming Policy Foundation, Lord Turnbull outlines the many doubts and disagreements that exist about key IPCC assumptions.

“Ministers would be well advised not to place such heavy bets on just one rather alarmist source of advice,” Lord Turnbull said.

Lord Turnbull added: “Vince Cable was right to point out the serious threat the UK’s unilateral climate targets pose to British business and the economy, particularly at a time of considerable economic fragility.”

“Lord Turnbull has had unsurpassed experience of policy-making at the highest level under governments of both parties. His measured verdict provides important lessons which ministers and senior officials in particular, but also parliamentarians, eminent scientists and the media, all need to reflect on.”

Andrew Turnbull was Permanent Secretary, Environment Department, 1994-98; Permanent Secretary to the Treasury 1998-2002, Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Home Civil Service 2002-05. He is now a crossbench member of the House of Lords and a Trustee of the Global Warming Policy Foundation.